


Kindergarten Conference

by charmingwords23



Series: Hero Worship [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Future, established olicity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 22:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2828141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmingwords23/pseuds/charmingwords23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity get called into a parent-teacher conference after their son has a particularly interesting day at school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kindergarten Conference

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Noha (scallisonstockings.tumblr.com) as her Olicity Secret Santa gift. I hope you enjoy it, Noha! She has an amazing blog, so I suggest you all check it out if you haven't already! :)

In the past 20 years of her career as a kindergarten teacher, there wasn’t much that Mrs. Cindy Brown had had not seen. She had witnessed children crying as their parents dropped them off. She had heard many children telling tall tales that couldn’t possibly be true while their peers listened eagerly and even repeated the stories later on. She had seen children try to eat play-doh, markers, and even occasional dabs of Elmer’s glue.

But in all her years of teaching, she had never seen a child do what Tommy Queen had done that day.

The boy, well known already for being the son of billionaire Oliver Queen and technology mogul Felicity Smoak-Queen, was quickly making a name for himself around the school among both the students and the faculty.

In the first couple weeks of school, little Tommy with his light hair and blue eyes hadn’t seemed much different from all the other rambunctious 5 year olds in his class. He was easily entertained, was well-liked by the other students, and was surprisingly smart for the son of a four-time college drop out. He said his mother helped him with his school work at home, so Mrs. Brown assumed that Mrs. Queen had also passed her technology skills on to her son. He had even fixed a problem with her computer in class all on his own.

Mrs. Brown had even once overheard Tommy muttering something in a language that sounded like Russian. She doubted Felicity Queen had taught him that.

However, as the school year had gone on, Mrs. Brown had started to notice an alarming trend in the way the child interacted with a few of the other children. The issue had only grown since she had first noticed it about a month ago, and with Tommy’s behavior today, Mrs. Brown felt like she had no choice but to invite his parents in for a conference.

When Mr. and Mrs. Queen arrived, they entered the brightly colored classroom talking amongst themselves. Mr. Queen’s hand rested on the small of his wife’s back, and he watched her talk with her hands as if he were staring at the sun. Mrs. Brown greeted them with a warm smile and ushered them over to her desk where she had set two chairs for them on the opposite side. Mr. Queen took his wife’s jacket for her and placed it across the back of her chair while she sat down.

“It’s nice to see you again, Felicity,” the teacher began warmly as she handed fresh water bottles to the young woman and her husband. She had met Felicity at the school open house a few weeks ago, and had thoroughly enjoyed the young woman’s company. It was easy to see where Tommy got his charm. Mr. Queen had been unable to attend that evening (although Mrs. Brown was never really given a reason), so Felicity had asked to take pictures of Tommy’s work around the classroom to show to her husband.

“You too! I was happy to hear from you,” Felicity smiled brightly. A moment later, her smiled faltered a bit. “I mean, not happy happy. I was hoping we’d have a couple years before Tommy started getting into trouble. Although, from the stories Oliver’s told me about what he was like a child, I can’t say I’m surprised that his son is already a menace at school.” She shot a teasing smile over to her husband who looked like he was trying to suppress a grin.

“Oliver Queen,” he introduced himself by extending his hand across the desk.

“Cindy Brown,” the teacher responded, shaking his hand politely. “Tommy has told me so much about both of you. You should be proud to have a son who thinks so highly of his parents.”

“Aw, thank you,” Felicity smiled sincerely and looked over at her husband who also smiled and nodded.

“That reminds me,” Mrs. Brown continued, “he also told me he’s going to be a big brother. Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” Felicity grinned and rubbed a hand over her slightly rounded middle. “He’s pretty excited. We told him before we even told my mom. Let’s just say we didn’t get to break the news to my mom.” She glanced at her husband and they both grinned at the shared memory.

“Well I’m sure he’ll make a great big brother,” the teacher affirmed pleasantly. “I asked you both to come in today because I wanted to discuss a behavior I’m seeing from Tommy recently.”

Mr. and Mrs. Queen shifted a little straighter in their seats, and Mrs. Brown noticed Oliver casually lace his fingers through his wife’s.

“What kind of behaviors?” Felicity inquired. “And please, don’t hold back. We’re not the type of parents who will be offended when you tell us the truth about what he’s been up to.”

“Whatever he’s done,” Oliver Queen spoke up, “We’ll make sure we take care of it at home. His education is important to us, and we won’t let him start any bad habits now.”

“That’s good to hear,” Mrs. Brown nodded. “First of all, I want to assure you that I genuinely enjoy having Tommy in my class. He’s a very intelligent boy who loves to ask questions. He’s good at following directions and he’s always polite and respectful to the teachers and other students here.”

Felicity turned her head and beamed at her husband upon hearing the kind words about their son. Mrs. Brown smiled a little bit at her proud expression. Oliver, however, was looking at her with a worried frown.

“If all that is true, then what should we be concerned about?”

“Well,” Mrs. Brown began, trying to find the words to begin telling them what she had witnessed. She had never had to explain such behavior to parents before, especially not to powerful billionaire parents. One lesson she’d learned in her career was that parents often became defensive when the teacher brought a problem to their attention. The Queens seemed like very nice, down to earth people, but the last thing she wanted was to make them angry.

Maybe it would be best to just start at the beginning.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s very normal for children to idolize their parents. Their fathers in particular.” She paused and watched as Felicity nodded and smiled sweetly at her husband. “It’s even pretty common for children to think their parents are superheroes.”

Both Queens froze and stared at her with mildly alarmed expressions.

“Don’t worry!” she backtracked. “Like I said, it’s totally normal.” Felicity giggled nervously, but Oliver still looked tense. He unscrewed the cap of his water bottle and lifted it to his lips.

Mrs. Brown continued. Best to just explain quickly. “A few weeks ago, Tommy started telling his classmates that his father was the Arrow.” Oliver choked a little on his water, and Felicity gasped in shock. “Now, I hear their tall tales all day, so I didn’t think much of it, but he just wouldn’t let it go. Before this, he hadn’t been one who usually told these types of stories, so I was a little surprised when he latched onto it and was so adamant.”

“I don’t…why would he…did he say why he thinks that?” Felicity sputtered.

Mrs. Brown shook her head. She glanced back to Oliver who had composed himself and now looked extremely focused. He shifted his seat closer to his wife’s, and removed his hand from hers so he could drape it across the back of her chair. The teacher saw him quickly glance around the room as if looking for hidden cameramen to jump out and tell him he was being Punk’d. Except there wasn’t much humor in his eyes. Oliver Queen didn’t seem like the kind of guy with an easy sense of humor anyway, she mused internally.

“Sometimes children begin to believe what they want to believe,” Mrs. Brown assured her sympathetically. “I don’t think he’s intentionally lying,” she continued. “He probably just has a vivid imagination.”

“Should we be concerned about him?” Oliver inquired.

“Well, he kept telling this to his classmates for the past few weeks. Earlier this week, I began to get a little concerned that some of the other students might believe him and tell their parents… I’m sure you wouldn’t want that type of rumor being spread about you, Mr. Queen.”

“No,” Oliver shook his head in agreement. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“And he never said what made him come up with this in the first place?” Felicity’s face was scrunched up in confusion and concentration. Mrs. Brown noticed Oliver’s thumb rubbing small circles across the top of her shoulder.

“Uh…” Mrs. Brown shifted in her seat. “He told a story, but I don’t think many of the children believed it. And I can assure you that no one here even thought twice about it.”

“What was it?” Felicity’s voice was raised an octave and Oliver quickly gave her shoulder a small squeeze.

Mrs. Brown looked at them both sympathetically. “He said that when his dad was working late, he heard a loud noise in his mom’s room, and when he went to check on you, he saw you kissing the Arrow.”

At the dumbstruck expressions on the couple’s face, Mrs. Brown continued. “Don’t worry! Like I said, we take the children’s stories like a grain of salt around here. Anyway, Tommy said that since his mom was kissing the Arrow, that meant the Arrow was his dad.”

After a beat, both the young parents gave small sighs of relief and chuckled mildly.

“You haven’t been kissing any crazy masked men, have you Felicity?” Oliver teased his wife, his eyes glinting with amusement.

Felicity rolled her eyes good-naturedly at him. “I guess I should be thankful that he assumed the vigilante from his little daydream was my husband and that he’s not spreading rumors that I’m having an affair.”

“I thought that was an interesting aspect of the story as well,” Mrs. Brown laughed. “One of the students posed that same question. He told them that his mom had told the Arrow that she loved him, and that his mom would only ever love his dad.”

Felicity nodded her head in amusement and looked at her husband adoringly. He smiled back at her and squeezed her shoulder again.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” Oliver said seriously, turning his attention back to the teacher. “We’ll be sure to talk to him.”

“Is that all you wanted to tell us?” Felicity asked, noticing the teacher’s hesitant expression. Oliver looked from his wife to the teacher with raised eyebrows.

“As a matter of fact,” the teacher began, “Tommy did have an outburst today that I would consider a bit of an escalation.”

Oliver and Felicity both leaned forward slightly in their seats, giving her their full attention.

“Tommy has always been a very kind child, and I’ve praised him on numerous occasions for standing up for the students in the class that are teased or ostracized by their classmates,” she began. Pausing, she picked up a green pen with a large orange flower decorating the non-writing end. “Today one of the other students brought this pen in for show-and-tell. As you can imagine, it was quite a hit. One of the more confident students in the class decided he wanted to use the pen during centers, so he took it from her.”

Oliver and Felicity glanced at each other, their expressions of trepidation showing that they had an idea where this was going.

“Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with a student who was getting sick, or I would have stepped in earlier myself. Anyway, Tommy asked the other boy to give the pen back when he noticed the little girl crying. When the boy refused, Tommy tackled him to the ground, tied his hands behind his back with a ribbon that was available at that particular center, and then stole the pen back for the girl.”

Felicity’s mouth hung open in shock, and Mrs. Brown could have sworn she saw Oliver fighting a proud smile.

“He did that? I’ve told him a million times he’s not allowed to be aggressive like that! I’m telling you, it’s that chasing game you play with him, Oliver.” Her husband shrugged at her with an impish grin. “Did you discipline him, or should we?” Felicity gasped out.

Mrs. Brown smiled at Felicity’s show of support. “I asked Tommy to sit in our ‘take a break’ chair to calm down. I was hoping you both would talk to him about how that behavior is inappropriate in school.”

“Of course,” Oliver nodded seriously.

“It might also be helpful for you to know that when he took the pen out of the tied up student’s hand, he shouted ‘You have failed this city!’”

Felicity gasped again and her hand flew up to cover her mouth (which Mrs. Brown thought might be formed into the shape of a smile). Oliver on the other hand looked as if someone had slapped him. He looked between the teacher and his wife with wide, slightly stunned eyes. Felicity lowered her hand from her mouth, and Mrs. Brown saw her mouth twitch.

“Obviously we will have a discussion with him,” Felicity supplied quickly. “We’ll make sure he knows that neither he nor his dad are violent, unhinged criminals who can go around dishing out justice however and whenever they want.” Felicity’s lips twitched again, and Mrs. Brown thought she noticed Oliver shoot her a slightly amused look.

“That’s great.” Mrs. Brown smiled. “The story about Mr. Queen being the Arrow was one thing, but I don’t want to see Tommy begin acting like such a maniac. The Arrow isn’t exactly the type of public figure I want a smart, sweet child like him looking up to and emulating.”

“Right,” Oliver responded through clenched teeth and a tense smile.

Felicity giggled and lifted her hand to her mouth to stifle it. “Sorry,” she apologized. “Pregnancy hormones.”

The teacher smiled kindly.

“Unless either of you have any questions for me, that’s really all I wanted to bring to your attention,” Mrs. Brown concluded.

They all shook hands again and she promised to keep them informed if she saw any other disturbing behavior from their son. The Queens resolved to discuss Tommy’s inappropriate behavior with him and reinforce the lesson that had been taught at school. Oliver helped his wife into her jacked and held the door for her on their way out.

Mrs. Brown glanced out her window as the young couple left. Oliver’s hand was on the small of his wife’s back again as they walked, and she noticed his head bent down listening intently as she talked animatedly. When they reached their town car, she watched as Felicity turned so her back was pressed against the car door and she was facing her husband.

The woman looked worried as she continued talking, and Oliver reached a hand out to rest it on her waist – his thumb soothingly rubbing across the side of his wife’s rounded belly. Mrs. Brown watched as Oliver used his other hand to cup his wife’s chin and tilt it up so she was looking at him. He was saying something to her now, and Felicity visibly relaxed and melted into a smile. Oliver dropped a light kiss on the woman’s lips before reaching around her to open the car door and usher her inside.

Mrs. Brown didn’t know where little Tommy Queen had gotten the idea that his father was the Arrow or what could have possibly caused him to dream up a scenario where the sweet Felicity Queen was entangled in that dangerously criminal vigilante business. But one thing that Mrs. Brown was sure of was that it wasn’t common to see parents like Tommy’s. At least Tommy had been right when he said his mother would never love anyone besides his father. And just from observing for the last half an hour, Mrs. Brown was pretty sure that Tommy’s dad would never look at anyone else the way he looked at his mom.


End file.
